Yeah, that was just one example... in cars... we do have electric cars, but they're mostly hybrids. It's still concerning to think about the amount of electricity that would need to be produced - the costs - and think that many cities already have energy shortages, especially at times like the summer (with air conditioning and all). Electricity is renewable, but it isn't unlimited all at once.

And then there's the debate over general power... nuclear vs. wind vs. solar vs. etc.

No matter the alternative, there will be drastic change and high costs if we ever come to the point where we can't even take a slower pace. If we don't act now to start using alternatives, we're not going to have a lot of options when we most need them.

*loves this scary attitude... so fun! I wanna be a politician now! =D*

I honestly don't know why people are so afraid of Nuclear power. A couple dozen nuclear plants in america would be far more than enough to power a nation on fully electric cars.

I'd like to die with the songs I love stuck in my head. I hope to make the most of these hollow bones we become.
I raise a toast to the the souls that sang all along. I've been gathering friends to just to make some sounds,
before the ship goes down, I've been making amends by making the rounds before the whole world ends

You know what I have noticed? That often throughout history, people have predicted the end. Recently my sister was watching MTV music awards (the pain) and Queen Latiffa came on and started a whole rant about world overpopulation. Malthus predicted fatal overpopulation in twenty years, he predicted this hundreds of years ago. People rant about how oil will run out and go the way of Chicken Little about how the sky is falling. But the truth is that humans always have a way of adapting. We are starting to now (albeit a bit too soon) but we will survive.

... Does anyone remember how ExxonMobil set records last year accumulating one billion dollars in profits per day, a first for any company in the history of the United States.

yep, oil companies really have taken advantage of the price boom :P
I'll not say they are for something for the declaration of war by the USA against Irak, but i'm not far from thinking it...

Originally Posted by Saizou

What's really galling is the fact that western society has known that this is coming for decades, and yet we've let big business and eco-retards slow down or stop the development of viable alternatives. In the best-case scenario we're back to burning coal.

oil is so convenient, and oil companies so powerful (let's not forget that :P) that the development of alternatives was more considered as a joke than anything else, and pressure was used to kill these developments in their early days... We could also blame all the big, heavy American cars which didn't help to ameliorate things, and idem for the European SUV owners who use these crappy cars for no reason except perhaps boasting (though i don't find them cool at all)...

Originally Posted by DE

We may have to accept a lesser standard of living. Yes, we'll survive, but it will cost us.

our current standard of living is too big (in western countries, and America particularly), so of course we will have to adapt to a "lesser" one sooner or later..

ps : i think electric cars (through fuel cells by example) are the future too (along with other alternatives to a lesser extent... there won't be a monopoly any more as the oil one has been for decades), and it isn't necessarily more expensive than oil !!!
By example La Poste (the French postal service) has been considering for some years to abandon its many oil cars for electric ones in towns, and will soon do it if the experiments are conclusive (<= and it is for economical reasons mainly, not just for the sake of it)
In general electric cars are way more effective and cheaper in towns than oil ones, and furthermore don't pollute, so it's only a matter of time for them to get a good part of the market ^^
Hybrid cars will become way more prevalent too, and Asian car makers will dominate the market because they have shown to be less stupid for some time.

One short term reason why demand will exceed supply is because the oil companies have been threatening to decrease their investment in new oil exploration, drilling platforms, and refinining facilities...as a direct response to the push for alternatives to the dependance on fossil fuels. Their logic, why should they make costly investments intended to increase the supply of oil and availability of gasoline in a situation where people are pushing for a greater reliance on alternative fules, more fuel efficient cars, hybrid cars, etc., that are intended to decrease the demand for fossil fuels.

They won't allow their precious high profit margin to slip by making investments that might be unnecessary, nor will they risk creating a situation where the supply of oil exceeds demand and produce a drop in the record high price of oil. From the standpoint of their financial bottom line, it's always better to engineer an artificial shortage rather than a surplus.

people have known that fossil fuel is gonna run out sooner or later. they just thought that they won't live long enough to see it.

I know. The technology is already there. But car companies are in bed with oil companies and the tech will never be picked up. Maybe if we're lucky theyre secretly doing R&D on this stuff and when peak oil hits the car companies will release the result to the public like it was their own idea.

PS. I hear hydrogen fuel cells are the future... anyone got any info on it?

I'd like to die with the songs I love stuck in my head. I hope to make the most of these hollow bones we become.
I raise a toast to the the souls that sang all along. I've been gathering friends to just to make some sounds,
before the ship goes down, I've been making amends by making the rounds before the whole world ends